the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Jan 31, 2022
Since November 3, 165 workers at the Jon Donaire Desserts plant in Santa Fe Springs, California, have been on strike.
The Donaire workers are mostly female, single mothers, and Latina. They make and decorate ice cream cakes that are sold at food chains such as Costco’s, Ralphs, Walmart, and Baskin-Robbins. They produce up to 13 ice cream cakes a minute, or one cake every four seconds, under freezing conditions, working up to 16 hours a day.
The company these women work for is owned by a major multi-national called Rich Products that sells more than 4,000 food products in over 100 countries. The company chairman, Bob Rich Jr., is said to be worth over seven billion dollars and is listed by Bloomberg News to be among the 500 richest people in the world!
These very low wage workers are demanding a dollar an hour increase per year over three years. They are also demanding an increase in paid sick days, since they only get three per year. And they want a change in how the company assigns overtime, since right now it is mandatory, and can be assigned right before the end of a shift. And they want to get rid of the point system that penalizes workers for taking days off from work, even with a medical excuse, or leaving a shift early.
Rich offered the Donaire workers no more than a $0.50 per hour wage increase, which doesn’t even keep the workers up with inflation. Hopefully, the workers will tell him where to stick his cake….